World of Beauty Ep. 1 (SHORT Recap)- Tang Gong Mei Ren Tian Xia

For those of you who don’t know the back story, Wu Ze Tian who was first known as Mei Niang, was a concubine to two emperors, father and son. Why is it that we never stray too far from these strang relationships (look at the emperor and his “empress” in Schemes of beauty and you’ll understand) I dunno. Anyways, Wu Ze Tian did actually have a daughter and the daughter did die. HOW the daughter died and why so mysteriously has always been a mystery, some say palace women jealous of Mei Niang did it. Some say that she did it herself. The truth is, as always in dramaland, irrelevant.

Anyways, the story starts with the young emperor, so I’m guessing we are not going to talk about Mei Niang’s first husband.

I hate first episodes, they are so…introductory.

We open the episode with “Mei Niang” walking towards a palace and kneeling on the steps outside, in the snow. Inside the Emperor has just announced that he wants to dethrone his empress and put Mei Niang on the throne. This of course doesn’t fly with his courtiers, who argue that the Empress has done nothing wrong and doesn’t deserve the edict. A Eunuch flies in as the Emperor argues back and forth with his advisors, saying that he should have the freedom. The eunuch tells the Emperor that “Mei Niang” is outside and is requesting the Emperor not to dethrone the Empress. Mei Niang doesn’t want that kind of power and she doesn’t want the Emperor to go into any kind of trouble for her. The Emperor is a bit exasperated with his concubine, but agrees to what she says

Few weeks later, the (almost dethroned) Empress comments that she misjudged Mei Niang wrongly, that even though Mei Niang could have gained the entire harem, she chose not to. Her maid warns her that the palace is a treacherous place and not to become too trusting. They are, of course, saying this as they go visit Mei Niang, who had invited the Empress to visit many a times. This is the first time she had accepted the concubine’s invitation. The empress finds Mei Niang’s empty palace with only the little princess Mei Niang had bore for the Emperor sleeping in the room. The Empress finds the little princess dead. Just as she was about to flee, the Emperor and Mei Niang walks in. After finding her daughter dead, Mei Niang blames the Empress, who is dragged off, her title gone and most likely executed.

And then we meet Mickey He (drool) or his character whose name is Shao Qing, who is some kind of detective in this story. I really have no interest in his story with the girl. But apparently it was love at first sight her name is Xing Er by the way . She is a bounty hunter and he is a detective, they meet when they are after the same criminal. He saves her and she reciprocates by asking him to marry her (if only marriage was that simple). Cut to him waiting to marry her and she sents a note saying she’s sorry. Awww, poor guy just doesn’t get the girl in any of his dramas does he?

He’s left wondering why she didn’t show up only to see that she’s entering the palace as a maid. Okay, shit just went to Deafcon Ridiculous. Anyways, she had asked a freed palace maid about life in the palace and the maid drew her a picture of the goddess of peace. Why I have no idea where this story is going, I expect that we will get back to Mei Niang’s story.

Interesting things:

First of all this is a story about Mei Niang, who later becomes the first (and only) female emperor in the history of China. Good for her but as far as feminism goes, not the best track record for a country. Then, of course, we have her as both beautiful and so nice its a little bit unbelievable. For the purpose of this drama, I’ll run with it. But there is a limit and since I am watching schemes of beauty, I don’t know how far my tolerance goes. I hate Zhang Ning’s hairstyle and choice of clothing. It looks like she’s wearing Katy Perry’s bra on her head and then stole clown’s clothes to make her concubine dress. I hope she gets to wear pretty stuff. No one should be paid that much to look ugly, especially when she’s one of my fav chinese actresses.